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Rapunzel Wig Tutorial

I mentioned in one of my recent posts that I was finishing up the kids’ Halloween outfits. I wanted to share with you what I had done for MK. She decided that she NEEDED to be Rapunzel after receiving a Rapunzel dress for her birthday. She also mentioned that she needed 70 feet of magical hair. Brian and I spotted a similar wig at a tent-or-treat last year and both knew that this was the time to make it. It wasn’t quite 70 feet, but because MK can’t really measure yet, we made it work ;).

An old pair of your daughters panty hose or leggings (preferably white or yellow)

2 skeins of bulky yellow yarn

1 skein of gold glitter yarn

Yellow felt (2″ x 7″ piece)

Colorful flowers

Hot glue or fabric glue

Needle and thread or sewing machine

Scissors

1. Get out a pair of your daughter’s panty hose from last year. I used some made out of sweater material from the Children’s Place. I didn’t have white and was too cheap to go buy more and wish I would have because the black does show through a little bit. Get white or yellow if you can. Cut the legs off of the hose. Then, sew them closed where you cut them remembering to keep right sides together.

2. Flip the hat around so that the right sides are facing out.

3. Try the hat on your daughter to make sure it fits nice and snug. The wig will be heavy, so if it is too loose the wig will slide.

4. You will need 2 skeins of yellow yarn that looks as much like hair as possible, a skein of gold glitter yarn, and a little bit of yellow felt for the hair piece.

5. Cut all of the yellow yarn into 120 inch pieces (The tutorial I followed suggested this length for her older daughter. These ended up being several inches too long for my 3 year old. Keep your daughters height in mind when cutting these. Remember you can always trim off extra length later so don’t cut too short. Cut 8-10 strands of the glitter yarn (also in 120 inch pieces). If you do this in a more organized fashion, you may be able to skip steps 6 and 7.

6. Gather all of your yarn pieces at one end. If you used 2 separate types of yarn like I did, you will want to try to disperse them evenly to make them look like real hair.

7. Spread the yarn out so it is all facing in the same direction.

8. Find the center point of your yarn. This will be half of whatever length you used in step #5. The tutorial I followed suggested using a center point of 60 inches (after cutting 120 inch peices for her older child). I used a center point of 50 inches for my 3 year old and still ended up trimming a significant portion off at the end.

9. Place your piece of felt at the center point.

10. Pin the felt to the front of your hat while holding it firmly to the yarn at the center point (Don’t worry, you are not the only one having a hard time holding everything together at this point). Then, sew down the center making it look like a part. I only made a seam of ~2.5 inches so that the hair could call naturally behind the part.

11. Try the hat on your excited little one.

12. Divide the hair into 3 sections and create a long braid.

13. Use a pony tail holder/rubberband to tie off the end of the braid.

14. Trim the hair 1-2 inches below the pony tail holder.

15. Take a deap breath and give your daughter a big hug…your almost finished!

16. Get some random flowers and glue onto your hair. I picked up a colorful bouquet from Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off. Just get some wire snips and snip the flowers off of the bouquet and hot glue them onto the hair as you please. You could also probably use fabric glue if you had that on hand. The tutorial that I followed suggested glueing your hair to your hat to tack it down a bit (If you do this, put the wig onto a small ball and not your child’s head…don’t want to permanently glue the wig onto your child). I did this and honestly think it may have been easier if I skipped it all together, or at least used it more conservatively. It does make it easier to keep your hair in one piece when the child is not wearing it. However, it makes it more challenging to put the wig on, because the cap portion of the wig will no longer stretch as easily (at least if you use as much glue as I did).

I already had some of the supplies on hand, but you should be able to make a similar wig for $20-25. Yes, the stringy hair versions are much cheaper at Target or Walmart, but this is SO much cuter. You also don’t have the tangled mess after one wear. MK has already worn her 70 feet of magical hair 3 times and it looks as good as new….and one of those times she was running around like a typical 3 year old with her friends at a church trunk-or-treat.

I encourage you to be creative and adapt this as you need to. It would look great with black yarn for Jasmine, or red yarn for Ariel. The possibilities are endless.

It only took me a couple of hours to put it together. So, from one procrastinator to another…you can still get this done before Halloween! Your daugther will love you for it!! Get busy!